Rode Rocks – Worldwide Band Competition

Rode Microphones has announced “Rode Rocks – Worldwide Band Competition” designed to locate and reveal the best in independent, unsigned talent around the world and reward them with an all expenses paid recording session in Hollywood with renowned producer Alain Johannes, as well as studio prize packs consisting of microphones and speakers.

To enter Rode Rocks | Worldwide Band Competition, artists need to record an original composition of more than two minutes in length and then create an accompanying video that features at least one Rode microphone. After uploading the video to YouTube, the artist simply needs to visit www.roderocks.com and submit their details along with a link to the video.

At the end of June 2012 a panel of guest judges including Matt Sorum (Guns n’ Roses, Velvet Revolver, The Cult), David Catching (Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal), Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist (The Hives), James Lavelle (UNKLE, MoWax), Band of Horses, Gareth Liddiard (The Drones), Har Mar Superstar, Deuce and Warpaint will reduce the number of entrants to ten finalists, and those videos will be showcased on the Rode website for a two week period in which all visitors will be invited to vote for their favorite performance.

First prize winners will receive return flights to Los Angeles, California to record at the famous Record Plant studios in Hollywood, with superstar producer Alain Johannes. Johannes is one of rock’s most in-demand collaborators, following his work with artists such as Chris Cornell, Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, Mark Lanegan, Them Crooked Vultures and more. Providing additional production and engineering support during the recording session will be John Merchant (Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, R.Kelly, Celine Dion, Lenny Kravitz, Phil Ramone) and Grammy Award winner Francis Buckley (Quincy Jones, Aerosmith, Alanis Morisette, Paula Abdul, LL Cool J, Black Flag).

Additionally the winning artist(s) will receive vocal training throughout the sessions from SLS certified instructor Robert ‘RAab’ Stevenson (Kelly Rowland, Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Jennifer Hudson, The Singing Office). The resulting recording will be professionally mixed and mastered, and provided to the winning artist to release as they see fit.

Second and third prize winners will each receive a studio prize pack consisting of a number of studio and live performance microphones and studio monitors from Event, totaling over US$15,000 in value.

“A quick tour of the most popular independent YouTube artists will show that Rode is already the microphone of choice for showcasing these incredible talents” commented Damien Wilson, Rode’s Global Sales & Marketing Director. “We’re very excited about the ‘Rode Rocks!’ competition being the connector between these great independent talents and some of the music industry’s finest artists, producers and engineers, as well as offering the winner a once-in-a-lifetime, money-can’t-buy recording experience!”

Rode Rocks | Worldwide Band Competition judge and rock n’ roll icon David Catching was blown away at the scale of the prizes. “You better have immense talent to win this chance of working with Alain, John, Francis and Rode at Record Plant, because you’ll be involved with the best of the best and coolest of the cool! This combination of bad assery is a dream come true!” he exclaimed.

“I wish I wasn’t a judge, cause I’d give my right arm to be recording with these awesome men, on these amazing mics at this legendary studio! Give it your best, because that’s what you’ll get in return!”

Full terms and conditions are available on the competition website. Visit www.roderocks.com now to enter!